THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much for
coming. Mrs. King, thanks for this beautiful
portrait. I can't wait to hang it. (Laughter.)

I want to welcome you all to the White House. We've
gathered in tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to the ideals he
held and the life he lived. We remember a man who brought
much good into the world by the power of his voice and the truth of his
words.

For some of you here this afternoon, Dr. King was, and is, a
special part of your life -- as a colleague and a friend and a
brother. Four call him "dad." And we are pleased
that two of his children are here with us today. We welcome
Bernice and Martin Luther King III. I know your dad would be
incredibly proud of you. (Applause.)

I also welcome Christine King Farris, Dr. King's
sister. (Applause.) Alveda King, Isaac Farris Jr., Arthur
Bagley and Arturo Bagley, family members are here, as
well. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)

And of course, we're honored to be in the presence of such a
distinguished and delightful lady, Coretta Scott
King. (Applause.)

I appreciate Secretary Rod Paige for being
here. (Applause.) In honor of Dr. King, the
Department of Education will soon announce the Martin Luther King Jr.
Scholars Program to promising students all across
America. (Applause.)

I appreciate all the members of my team who are here, in
particular, Condoleezza Rice, the National Security
Advisor. Thank you for coming,
Condi. (Applause.) It's good to see the
Mayor. Mr. Mayor and the First Lady, Diane are with us
today. Thank you all for
coming. (Applause.) The Mayor is a good
man. I can assure you, Mr. Mayor, we paid our property
taxes. (Laughter.)

I appreciate so many members of the diplomatic core for being
here. Ambassadors from all across the world are here to say hello to
Mrs. King and her family. And thank you all for coming to
pay honor to such a great American. Thank you very
much. (Applause.)

On a summer night in 1964, right here in the East Room, President
Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, and handed a pen to
Martin Luther King Jr. The law marked a true turning point
in the life of our country. As Dr. King put it, the Civil
Rights Act was the end of a century of slumber.

More laws would be needed, and more would follow. But on
that day, our federal government accepted the duty of securing freedom
and justice for every American. Standing in the White House,
marking a national holiday in Dr. King's memory, we are now two
generations and a world away from Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham, as
he knew them.

It would be easy to forget the great obstacles he overcame, and the
years of effort and the daily courage that turned a cause into a
movement. Perhaps without Martin Luther King, there might
still have been a Civil Rights Act. There is no
doubting that the law came as it did, when it did, because of him.

Yet, he was not one to claim credit for himself. The
civil rights law, he said, was first written in the streets, by many
thousands of black citizens, and others who shared their
goals. Their movement rose from generations of bitter
experience -- the slights, the cruelties, the pervasive wrongs that
marked the lives of many black Americans.

As a small boy, Martin has seen his father, a gifted and learned
man, retain great dignity while being insulted, ordered about, and
spoken down to. I don't care how long I have to live with
this system, said Martin Luther King Sr., I will never accept
it. The son would not accept it either.

Years afterwards, he related the story of going to the back of the
bus, day after day, putting his mind up in the front
seat. He told himself, one of these days I'm going to put my
body where my mind is. (Applause.)

In time, he did so, as did others, some of whose names are also
honored in our history. Along the way, he was beaten and
stabbed, jailed, and came close to losing his wife and baby daughter
when their house was bombed. At a certain point, even a
strong man might have yielded. Dr. King never did, and he
never gave up on his country.

He believed that whatever one would change, one must first love --
and he loved America. His most powerful arguments were
unanswerable, for they were the very words and principles of our
Declaration and Constitution.

When he came to this capital city and stood before the figure of
the great emancipator, it was not to assail or threaten. He
had come to hold this nation to its own standards, to live out the true
meaning of its creed.

We see Martin Luther King in many ways. Perhaps, above
all, we should see him as a minister of the gospel. He said,
I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute --
not for these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to
God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

That faith gave Dr. King the grace to forgive, and the strength to
love. He refused to answer hatred with hatred, or meet
violence with violence. He appealed not to resentment, but
to reason; not to anger, but to conscience. He was on this
earth just 39 years. On the last night of his life, he did
seem to sense that grave danger was lying in wait. But he
trusted in the ways of providence, not fearing any man, certain that no
man could ever finally prevent the purposes of Almighty God.

Here on all the roads of life, said Dr. King in a sermon, God is
striving in our striving. As we struggle to defeat the
forces of evil, the God of the universe struggles with
us. Evil dies on the seashore, not merely because of man's
endless struggle against it, but because of God's power to defeat it.
Martin Luther King Jr. lived in that belief, and died in that belief.

Some figures in history, renowned in their day, grow smaller with
the passing of time. The man from Atlanta, Georgia, only
grows larger with the years. America is a better place
because he was here, and we will honor his name forever.